Old Bar Owners Expand To Regional Victoria
News posted Wednesday, December 21 2011 at 03:00 PM.
Related: The Old Bar.
The owners of Melbourne’s Old Bar have expanded their operations to regional Victoria.
Liam Matthews, Singa Unlayiti and Joel Morrison have today (December 21) announced their acquisition of the freehold for the Bridge Hotel in Castlemaine (in the Central Victorian goldfields, about 120 kilometres northwest of Melbourne).
As of March 1 2012, the venue will reopen under the management of Brendan Noonan and Kat Hamilton, who have formerly managed The Northcote Social Club in Melbourne and The Old Bar, respectively. (Although you might know Noonan better as frontman of The Stabs.) The pair plan to host gigs in the new year, with an official launch slated for the “not too distant future”.
“Live music is an integral part of our plan for The Bridge Hotel, but realistically it's going to take a bit of time for us to get that up and running,” Noonan told M+N. “The pubs we've been involved in past in the have been music venues. That's what we know and love so it's definitely going to be part of The Bridge. We also plan to serve up some great food and hope build on what is a great local pub.”
Nestled in the Central Victorian goldfields, Castlemaine is home to the historic Theatre Royal, which will play host to the Dirty Three in March next year.
Purchased by Matthews, Unlayiti and Morrison in 2007, The Old Bar celebrated its 10-year anniversary with a round of gigs in April this year. In an interview at the time with M+N, Matthews said the one-time Spanish restaurant was the perfect fit for the trio; two of whom previously owned The Afterdark in Northcote.
“It had everything that we needed to continue trying to achieve our goals of running a venue, it was bigger than what we had and it was in Fitzroy. There was very little to think about other than, ‘How do we get it?’”
The Bridge Hotel is located at 21 Walker Street, Castlemaine.
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nice!
Yay!
This is cooooool.
Fricken' excellent.
Chats better hope Yarra Trams extend route 96 to Castlemaine.
Good news!
woooh!
sweet. not very far from melbourne. good gig spot would be siiiiiiick.
Just to push the point home, Brendan & Kat own the business and will be running the pub. It's gonna be great.
Seems like the place for some post-Dirty Three drinks.
I bought my first and last bottle of bundy rum at the Bridge!
Sicknutz
one hour and fifteen minutes on the vline train then a 10 min walk to the pub.
just need some dinner/gig/somewhere to sleep combo and i'll be set.
I reckon you can walk there in 5 mins...
1
if you had a hoverboard, you can probably get there in 2 minutes, unless you go over water.
Love it. There's not enough places to facilitate regional touring in Victoria.
Great news: a receptive venue for slap bass in a great slap bass town. The Bridge will be high to avoid fret buzz and thus will not fail.
Old Bar dudes, please now acquire a crappy motel near the pub.
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Yes I think it is Papa Singa
There will be a haloumi burger here for me tonight. Perhaps copious amounts of beer also. Perhaps.
First show of the Archer residency about to start. Its free entry.
Facepalm says Modi and PGOJ are going. Does that mean they live in Castlemaine now?
It doesnt mean that but Castlemaine is accessible to people who don't live there as well. In fact there is a train that goes there.
No, no, that's okay. Just wondering if I should blacklist it or not.
Now now, play nice with the others please.
Hang on, when are the Blacklist playing?
Popped in last night, band rooms gonna be great.
ANSWER ME
Blacklist are playing there in two weeks time. You will hear all about it after you return from o/s.
Is there a tv to watch the footy here?
There is two
Blacklisted from C-town.
There ARE two
Great, will be there saturday night.
Anyone know what time the bands come on?
Do they have supports?
Trying to organise what time I leave Melbs on The Night Of Malkmus.
8:00pm doors
The Murlocs 8:30pm
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks 9:30pm
Hooray!